Magic and Mayhem: DCUO's DLC 8 Revealed at SOE Live 2013

By -
August 3, 2013

Today SOE announced DLC 8: Sons of Trigon for DC Universe Online, featuring a magic-focused romp through a demonically twisted Gotham City controlled by DC's own devil, 2 new PvP Legends characters, new Celestial powers and much more. Join us as Creative Director Jens Andersen walks us through this massive Fall 2013 DLC at SOE Live 2013.Â

Unlike DLC 7: Origin Crisis, whose group-based content proved very challenging for many DCUO players, DLC 8 is focused on solo and duo play. The Fall 2013 timing and small group focus is opportune, given that SOE recently announced that DCUO would be released on the PS4.

Tech and Meta focused characters have gotten a lot of airtime in DCUO's first year and a half of existence, so it was time to focus on Magic based characters. As such, Circe (villains) and Wonder Woman (heroes) serve as narrators as players descend into one of DCUO's loosest threads at launch: what happened to DC's uber demon Trigon when his portal failed to bridge his infernal realm with Gotham City.

Many sons had father Trigon, seven to be exact, and with seven deadly sins to match, SOE couldn't resist pairing up sons and sins. Jesse (Envy), Jacob (Lust), and Jared (Wrath) figure prominently with their own play areas to match - Jared's duo encounter (one of three, plus one alert) is found deep within a twisted Amusement Mile's Tunnel of Lust, for example - and all are surrounded by cultists with a certain look and feel. Jesse's minions sport a hole where their stomach should be, symbolizing their bottomless, envious desires. They make up a portion of the more than 4,000 individual characters being added to the game in DLC 8, according to Jens.

DLC 8's climactic alert encounter with the massive, multi-eyd, and multi-storied figure of Trigon is found deep within a hellish version of Gotham City's Cathedral, but not before players have to battle past the spirits of Gotham's dearly departed families (families with names like Wayne and Falcone) in the catacombs.

Gotham Gone Bad aside, DLC 8 boasts a number of niceties for players of all sorts. Two magic-based characters will be added to Legends (DCUO's PvP arena): Cheetah, PvP's first super-speedster, and Donna Troy, a lasso-wielding Amazon. New bounties will be introduced on Raven's split souls (Raven being Trigon's prideful son, yet also the foil to his past scheming). DLC 8's narrators, Circe and Wonder Woman, will be added to the marketplace soon after launch.

But most compelling of all may be the new Celestial healing powers set, which is also perhaps the most active of DCUO's healing powers. Those familiar with the power-comboing abilities of Light powers will feel most comfortable with Celestial powers, as effective healing and fighting is done through switching back and forth between opposing trees, whether you're a hero (blessed) or a villain (cursed). Celestial powers will have new angelic and demonic style sets to match.

DLC 8 "Sons of Trigon" is currently slated for a "very early" Fall 2013 release. Our thanks to Jens Andersen and SOE for an advance look at DCUO's next update at SOE Live 2013.